Shooting With Tamron's Two New SP Lenses

by Skip Cohen

On Wednesday I shared some of Erik Valind’s images taken with Tamron's new SP35mm lens, which were part of their launch presentation of two incredible new products.  I had no idea the fun I’d have over the next 24 hours after that.

It started with each journalist being consigned a SP35mm and SP45mm lens, followed by a day and a half to put them through our own tests. While most of you would be completely relaxed and love an assignment like this, you’ve got to remember my profile.

I am NOT a professional photographer. My core business is about marketing, but I’ll match my passion for the craft with anybody.  Although I’m the low-tech poster child for this industry and I’ve never shot with any of the traditional DSLRS like Nikon or Canon, I do understand the key elements of photography.

I was given the two lenses and a Nikon D610, the manual and a quick lesson from my good buddy, Rich Harrington. While I understand the basics of the craft, I had never used the camera before and didn't know the controls. I was up at 5:00 am on Wednesday morning reading the manual. I've seen phone books that were smaller!

Meeting the group at 9:00 am, we headed out for the day walking all over NYC, starting with the High Line, essentially a boardwalk two stories above the streets of the city and winding in and out between NYC's buildings. All along the way the High Line is beautifully landscaped, so playing with close-up images became my subject of choice.
 
The berries on the evergreen were shot almost wide open at f2.8,  with the SP35mm. The second image is simply enlarged another 50% and the third up 100%.

The image below was shot at f13 @ 1/40 ISO 200 with the SP35mm in a flower box along the way.

I did start shooting street scenes later in the day...just haven't had the time yet to start going through those images, so it's one more flower shot I wanted to share. The bottom image is enlarged 60%.

I've got a lot of images playing with these two new products that I'll be sharing in the next few weeks, but you need to check them out for yourself. They'll be available on September 29. So, get yourself into your Tamron dealer and check them out. 

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